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The Benson Murder Case

S. S. Van Dine

Brilliant amateur sleuth Philo Vance solves a puzzling murder in one of the most influential detective novels of the twentieth century

All of Wall Street and Manhattan high society is abuzz after playboy stockbroker Alvin Benson is discovered dead in his brownstone mansion, slumped over in an easy chair with a bullet in his head. The man’s body is found in a room locked from the inside, and his head is missing the toupee that usually adorned it. Ballistics experts, detectives, and the NYPD’s top brass can’t solve the crime, but luckily they don’t have to: New York’s leading flaneur and art connoisseur, Philo Vance, is on the case, and he’s got precisely the far-flung and esoteric knowledge needed to interpret the clues and determine whodunnit.

By carefully examining the crime scene and reconstructing the deadly shooting, Vance determines a number of things about the murderer, including his or her height―and this is only the first of many deductive feats that he will pull off before the investigation comes to a close. But will he be able to pierce the alibi of the true killer and prove their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt?

The first novel in one of the most influential detective series of the early twentieth century, The Benson Murder Case introduces iconic amateur sleuth Philo Vance with a plot loosely based on the true-life murder of a famous bridge player. Its aristocratic Golden Age New York setting, obscure art cultural references, and devilishly complicated puzzle plot make this a must-read for nostalgia buffs and for anyone who appreciates a classic mystery.

Margaret's Story

Eugenia Price

In this powerful crescendo to Eugenia Price’s acclaimed Florida Trilogy, young and headstrong Margaret Seton vows to win the heart of grieving widower Lewis Fleming.

Margaret’s Story tells of the heartwarming relationship between the bold Margaret and her beloved Lewis, and how it plays out against dangerous and tumultuous events while spanning almost half a century. Experiencing Seminole uprisings, Florida’s burgeoning statehood, the Civil War, and the challenges of Reconstruction, Margaret holds her devoted family together with love, strength, and faith. Even the tragedy of seeing their beloved plantation on the St. John’s River, Hibernia, destroyed twice, and having sons and husband pitted against each other in war cannot break Margaret’s spirit or shake her faith. Her unconditional love, unflagging conviction in God, and contagious hope impact her descendants, a young state, and indeed a nation.

Don Juan McQueen

Eugenia Price

Bestselling author Eugenia Price captures the drama, the glory, and the pure emotion of Southern life and love with perfection in Don Juan McQueen.

A powerful novel by Eugenia Price, Don Juan McQueentells the story of John McQueen, an American patriot and friend of Washington and Jefferson, who finds himself bankrupt and forced to flee to Spanish East Florida to escape imprisonment. Anne, his beautiful wife, and children remain in Savannah, Georgia, as he obtains a new identity—Don Juan McQueen, confidante to the Spanish governor. The more he adapts to his new home, the more quickly he falls from the graces of Anne, and their children are trapped between them.

Filled with action and drama, this sequel to Maria reveals a unique period in history as the characters struggle with religion, Spanish influence, and America’s quest for expansion and recognition.

Maria

Eugenia Price

The spirited story of Mary Evans, an extraordinary woman from colonial Charles Town who finds a place for herself in St. Augustine after Spain relinquishes Florida.

In this captivating tale, Eugenia Price paints a vivid picture of the tumultuous historic and political events that shaped the life of Mary Evans, a remarkably independent woman in the colonial south. Born in Charles Town, South Carolina, Mary, a skilled midwife, accompanied her first husband, British soldier David Fenwick, when his regiment fought the Spanish in Cuba. When Spain agreed to give all of Florida in exchange for the city of Havana, Mary (who became known as Maria) and her husband were forced to relocate to the new British garrison town of St. Augustine, Florida.

Maria exposes challenges that would unnerve a less resourceful woman, but she made a name for herself—developing and enhancing her position with influential citizens of St. Augustine. Eventually marrying three times, Maria proved herself to be an extraordinary woman, for any day or time.

Apocalypse Child

Flor Edwards

For the first thirteen years of her life, Flor Edwards grew up in the Children of God. The group's nomadic existence was based on the belief that, as God's chosen people, they would be saved in the impending apocalypse that would envelop the rest of the world in 1993. Flor would be thirteen years old. The group's charismatic leader, Father David, kept the family on the move, from Los Angeles to Bangkok to Chicago, where they would eventually disband, leaving Flor to make sense of the foreign world of mainstream society around her. Apocalypse Child is a cathartic journey through Flor's memories of growing up within a group with unconventional views on education, religion, and sex. Whimsically referring to herself as a real life Kimmy Schmidt, Edwards's clear-eyed memoir is a story of survival in a childhood lived on the fringes.

Alamo in the Ardennes

John McManus

At last, here is a book that tells the full story of the turning point in World War II's Battle of the Bulge - the story of five crucial days in which small groups of American soldiers, some outnumbered 10 to 1, slowed the German advance and allowed the Belgian town of Bastogne to be reinforced. Alamo in the Ardennes provides a compelling, day-by-day account of this pivotal moment in America's greatest war.

A Deception of Massive Proportion: A Romantic Comedy

Victorine Lieske

She's a reporter. He's a rockstar who must keep his identity hidden.

When tabloid reporter, Riley Campbell, lands the job to be Shadow Walker’s personal assistant for one week, she thinks the stars have finally aligned for her. She can spend an entire week digging around to figure out the masked pop singer’s true identity and get that promotion she desperately needs to save her father. But when things start to get personal with Shadow Walker, Riley has to decide if deceiving him really is the best plan.

Jalen Carter had never had a break in his life. That is until he put on a mask that hid his burned skin and entered American Superstar, the popular singing competition that jumpstarted his career. Now his concerts are sold out nationwide. The only problem? He must keep his identity a secret or all his fame could come crashing down around him. When the lovely Riley Campbell enters his life and makes him weak in the knees, he’s not sure what to do. Will revealing his true identity scare her away?

A Case of Extreme Mistaken Identity

Victorine Lieske

Some mistakes are meant to happen.

When Danica Jordan, daughter of the famous actor Samuel Jordan, gets involved in yet another horrible scandal, her father cuts her off, leaving her stranded and forced to get a—gasp!—CLEANING JOB. If that isn’t bad enough, someone keeps leaking photos of her to the paparazzi. All Dani wants to do is disappear.

Famous football star Austin Scott is staying at the Billionaire Club to recuperate from an injury. When Danica mistakes him for a maintenance man, he doesn’t correct her. He really doesn’t even want to talk to her, but she’s in a bad spot and he ends up helping her. The more time he spends with her, the more he falls for her. Except, she still thinks he’s the maintenance man.

Sometimes the truth is better left alone. That is, until it all comes crashing down around you.

A Marriage of Anything But Convenience

Victorine Lieske

It was a simple marriage of convenience. Just two years. What could possibly go wrong?

Nara couldn't believe it when her father came up with the crazy idea that she needed to marry Mr. Stuffy himself. Derek Marshall. Sure, he was stinkin' gorgeous and made her insides quiver. But marry him? She was on her way to getting her dream job as a fashion designer. Well, on her way if you counted getting coffee for someone who had her dream job.

Derek has been in love with Nara all his life. But how can he possibly get her to see it? He's not cool like the men Nara usually dates. He gets tongue tied around her. But now they're married and all he can think about is the clock ticking down until the divorce date.

Can he show her how much he really cares?

Saving Grace

Debbie Babitt

“I’m the only one who knows what really happened to those girls…”

For twenty-four years, Mary Grace Dobbs has been searching for salvation. Orphaned at eleven, she was forced to live on the charity of her Bible salesman uncle. At school, a bully made her life a nightmare. Everything changed when a newcomer to town became her first and only best friend. Two months later, search parties were sent out to find her two classmates, who were never seen again.

Today, Mary Grace is a single mother and the first female sheriff of her Arkansas town. Keeping order and her demons at bay becomes an impossible task when the Black drifter who was a suspect in the earlier disappearances returns to Repentance…and another sixth grader vanishes.

Set in a remote mountain town, where secrets run as deep as the hollows, Saving Grace is at once a spellbinding tale of innocence lost and an edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller. This startling debut novel introduces a captivating protagonist whose concept of good and evil can shape a young girl living in the South—then and now.

Only Truth

Julie Cameron

A successful artist with a doting husband, Isabel Dryland knows she should be grateful for her happy life. After a violent assault she cannot remember left her shattered and scarred, the lingering effects of her injuries keep her questioning her sanity at times. 
 
Tom, her husband, thinks a move will be the fresh start they need, and has even found the perfect house: a country estate that reminds him of one he admired in his youth. But all Isabel feels inside the house is an overwhelming sense of dread.
 
Then she learns that beneath the pretty façade of their new home lurk dark secrets powerful enough to bring her own trauma back to the fore.  Struggling to determine whether her fear is caused by memory alone, or by present danger, Isabel knows the only way to free herself from her fears is to find closure for the violence in her past.  But how do you heal from a past you cannot recall, when only the truth about your past can set you free? 

Golden Age Locked Room Mysteries

Otto Penzler

Fourteen impossible crimes from the American masters of the form

For devotees of the Golden Age mystery, the impossible crime story represents the period’s purest form: it presents the reader with a baffling scenario (a corpse discovered in a windowless room locked from the inside, perhaps), lays out a set of increasingly confounding clues, and swiftly delivers an ingenious and satisfying solution. During the years between the two world wars, the best writers in the genre strove to outdo one another with unfathomable crime scenes and brilliant explanations, and the puzzling and clever tales they produced in those brief decades remain unmatched to this day.

Among the Americans, some of these authors are still household names, inextricably linked to the locked room mysteries they devised: John Dickson Carr, Ellery Queen, Clayton Rawson, Stuart Palmer. Others, associated with different styles of crime fiction, also produced great works―authors including Fredric Brown, MacKinlay Kantor, Craig Rice, and Cornell Woolrich.

All of these and more can be found in Golden Age Locked Room Mysteries, selected by Edgar Award-winning mystery expert and anthologist Otto Penzler. Featuring a delightful mix of well-known writers and unjustly-forgotten masters, the fourteen tales included herein highlight the best of the American impossible crime story, promising hours of entertainment for armchair sleuths young and old.